emphasized

American  

[em-fuh-sahyzd] / ˈɛm fəˌsaɪzd /

especially British, emphasised

adjective

1. made more visible, more important, etc.; stressed.

   Read the emphasized sentence carefully, and contrast it with the information given in the previous paragraph.

   Good sportsmanship was the emphasized theme of the club's operations.

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verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of emphasize.

Other Word Forms

• unemphasized adjective
• well-emphasized adjective

Etymology

Origin of emphasized

emphasize ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

Explanation

Something that's emphasized is stressed. The emphasized point of a politician's speech might be lowering taxes. When you put stress on something or pay it extra attention, you can describe it as emphasized. There are emphasized syllables in words, emphasized subjects in school, and emphasized parts of a wedding reception speech. The source of the adjective emphasized is the noun emphasis, "importance or stress." Emphasis is a Greek word, used in rhetoric to mean "significance" or "indirect meaning," from emphainein, "let a thing be seen."

Example Sentences

He said Grossi emphasized "how fragile the UN is today" and appeared more "radical" than Guterres on reform.

From Barron's • Apr. 23, 2026

Anthropic and OpenAI have emphasized AI coding tools, and now SpaceX is looking to bulk up its efforts in this buzzy area.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 22, 2026

Boris Baer, a UCR entomology professor and co-author of the study, emphasized the importance of collaboration with beekeepers.

From Science Daily • Apr. 20, 2026

Obama, who has remained active in public life since leaving office, has frequently emphasized education as a cornerstone of economic opportunity in his entire political and post-political career.

From Salon • Apr. 19, 2026

And Thomas Jefferson’s lyrical rendering of the reasons for the entire revolutionary enterprise emphasized the self-evident character of the principles at stake.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis

Related Words

• accentuate
• affirm
• assert
• highlight
• indicate
• maintain
• point out
• reiterate
• repeat
• underline
• underscore